Despite being a figment of K’s imagination, Sumire does not reciprocate K’s love, illustrating K’s inability to love himself. This is paralleled with the importance of Miu’s character. Between the three of these characters a broken love triangle is created. K describes the dynamic between them, describing, “This woman loves Sumire. But couldn’t feel any sexual desire for her. Sumire loved this woman and desired her. I loved Sumire and felt sexual desire for her. Sumire liked me but didn’t love me, and didn’t feel any desire for me”(123). The fact that these characters can not love each other even though they are all K’s own creation is preeminent to understanding K’s own identity. Miu’s significance throughout Sputnik Sweetheart is to characterize K’s inability to love himself.…show more content… Even her name itself is contained in the name ‘Sumire’. Furthermore, Miu is a very enigmatic character. She is described as having relations to other characters, yet there is no evidence of this. Her husband is never mentioned by name, nor seen. The only verifiable contact made with Miu is with Sumire and K. Moreover, Miu can be seen as an projection from K’s own past. K narrates, “The summer vacation of my freshman year in college, I took a random trip. . . ran across a woman eight years older than me. . . we spent one night together”(39). This parallel of the older unattached woman may indicate where it is that K’s subconscious has conceived Miu. His detachment to the older woman he met while traveling, paralleled with the confounding broken love triangle symbolizes K’s struggle with identity because of ineptitude for self love. Before he can have what he desires most, requited love, he must love
